At the Organ

This album’s cover features Jimmy McGriff’s name four times, over an image of a pearl-wearing woman shot through a glass door, reducing her to an abstraction. Released in 1964 on the indie Sue label, it features saxophonist Rudolph Johnson, guitarist Larry Frazier and drummer Jimmie Smith (no relation to organist Jimmy Smith, but Larry Young’s cousin). It’s a generally hard-driving soul-jazz set, but with deep roots. The group performs a few McGriff originals, all built around simple, powerful blues riffs and offering plenty of room for the leader’s rocking solos, but they also dip deep into a more traditional jazz bag. You get a version of Count Basie’s “Jumpin’ At The Woodside” that absolutely jumps, a pulsing take on Fats Waller’s “That’s All,” and genial versions of the standards “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)” and “Shiny Stockings.”